WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- There is a vast, cavernous gap between how safe our government makes you feel, and how safe you actually are. When the rhetoric starts rolling off your legislator's tongues, make sure you know the difference -- because the reality might make that warm, fuzzy feeling evaporate rather quickly.
Take the recently passed, and much lauded, Homeland Security Bill.
Don't get me wrong -- I think this bill will, in the end, merge some
facets of our security system into a more efficient, streamlined
department. But this piece of legislation has dominated the Senate
floor, the news cycles and an election, even though it has virtually no immediate bearing on the safety and well being of Americans. It has been widely acknowledged that the new department will take years to organize, with internecine squabbles already bubbling to the surface.
Now that the bill has passed, however, all of its most vehement
supporters are free to speak the truth. Take Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor now being touted as the likely new head of the department. "I may need to go to church every day" for guidance on how to manage this massive reorganization, says the President's homeland security adviser. "This is going to be difficult, and it's going to take longer than anyone thinks," says outgoing Republican Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, another of the bill's supporters.
Republicans made this an election issue, speaking as if every moment's delay affected the immediate day to day security of Americans. My least favorite Republicrat, Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, did his very best to further the fear-mongering cause by stating, "They (other Democrats) put ... workers' rights above American lives."
The Democrats, for their part, came up with the brilliant plan of
waiting until after they received their election-day pummeling to cave on the bill, which was their own brainchild and, largely, their final product. It was a plan that led to a few truly absurd provisions. House Republicans added blatant interest-catering provisions to the bill that limit liability for makers of certain vaccine additives, allow overseas U.S. businesses to garner new Homeland Security contracts and create a new research facility -- guess where? -- at Texas A & M University.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Minority Leader Tom Delay, with tongues firmly tucked in their cheeks, told the two Republicans who wavered in the face of these payback provisions not to worry, that they would repair the damage once Congress returns next year. A Delay spokesman said after the vote, "We are leaving the door open to improvements next year, but it's way too early to tell."
That sounds ominously like a broken promise in the making. But the
Republicans had plenty of Democratic allies in allowing this interest
mongering. All but eight Democrats and the one Senate Independent, Jim Jeffords of Vermont, voted for the final bill.
So forget that al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and most of his cronies are still on the loose, our government is behind schedule in placing federal baggage screeners and bomb detection equipment in all airports, our intelligence agencies still lack translators and information analysts, only a microscopic amount of cargo brought to this nation by sea is checked, and we still haven't even looked into what went wrong before the last terrorist attack. We now have a Department of Homeland Security, so all else is forgiven.
Unfortunately, these rhetorical debates obscure more mundane yet
practical concerns. Despite the cries from government officials that we lack the aforementioned translators, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network says that at least seven Arabic linguists have been discharged from the services because they are gay. Considering the rarity of Arabic linguists with security clearance, this ideological prioritization seems absurd at best and downright scary at worst. The Bush administration has so far done nothing to rectify this problem.
Nor has all of the tough talk about improving security led to the
necessary appropriations to do the job. The president's actual budget
also falls below authorized spending on bioterrorism, port security, and border security. But the Department of Homeland Security is now a
reality, and those labor-loving Democrats who value workers rights over our safety have been finally put to rest. But remember, in the
rhetorical world of politics, it's not how safe we really are but how
safe we feel that matters. Or is it?
(Gareth Schweitzer is White House correspondent for Talk Radio News )
(Outside View commentaries are written for UPI by outside writers who specialize in issues of public interest.)
